I put pictures in it so it wouldn't look as boring as it is...

Okay, I've slept. It's amazing how that helps.

A few things I forgot to say about my weekend:

I got mango juice! At the store with my dad. And that bears mentioning because MANGOES! I like mangoes. And there were items in the box of food I wasn't quite expecting. Like whole almonds and whole brazil nuts. Which might have been okay, but I have no table, so in cracking them I was left with quite a mess on my hands... Good thing I stole that vacuum cleaner! (I mean, good thing my dad forgot that vacuum cleaner and I totally didn't remember it either for a long time as it was sitting right in front of me; whichever you think is more plausible...)

I also took a picture of the jersey I bid for the frisbee in, since it's the first time I got dirty in Minnesota and everything...

As you can see, I do not lay out like you are supposed to. It's no wonder my shoulder has constant problems. (In case you don't know, the dirt should be on the front. I lay out onto my shoulder and then obviously slide on my back.) I lay out correctly at handball, but I guess the sports just have different requirements. For instance, in handball I have to be able to get up quickly for the next shot, and I also have to be able to direct where the ball goes, generally in an upward manner. But in frisbee, the only goal is to reach as far as possible, and I feel like I reach farther with one arm stretched as far as possible than if bidding onto my front.

Also, because my dad brought me a bedframe and a dresser, the dresser took up all the space I was using to put shoes. But the bedframe solved the problem:

Should a boy have this many shoes? I'm even wearing my sandals! And I still want more shoes, too. I need brown dress shoes, for instance. And I'd like a pair of shoes to run in that aren't coming apart on the bottom, but I guess those would replace the running shoes I have, not actually add to the count...

I have a great way of keeping track of my groceries. I have an ongoing list (like everyone, I'm sure), but I don't take items off the list. I just move them down the list on the other side of a break in the list. So when I buy something, I move it down, and when it runs out, I put it back up, and then when the list on top has more things on it than the list on the bottom, I go shopping! That could be a while now, though, since I have too many things I wasn't accounting for. Like fruit, for instance. I ate three pieces of fruit with my lunch because I bought bananas and grapes, and then my mom sent me apples and pears. At least there wasn't overlap. And through some further clairvoyance, she must have seen me pick up the cashews and put them back down, since she sent me those too! My parents are great. My mom even tolerates 1:00am phone calls. And then sends me emails until after 2:00! Either she's incredibly dedicated or I scared the crap out of her. It was probably some combination.

See that? That was a segue into what happened after my crazy night of no sleep and half-depressing, half-distract-myself-with-interesting-things-that-happened post. At least, it was a segue until I ruined it. Now it's just a broken transition, going in circles like a wheeled apparatus for lazy people to drive in tour groups. That's right, segue metaphors. I'm cool like that.

So. I finished my post, went to the bathroom, contemplated going home for an hour, decided to just stay here (wardrobe critics be damned!), and went back to the library. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but I must have still had a bit of adrenaline or brain-frenzy or something weird, because that wasn't happening. I waited it out, though, and fell soundly into a peaceful slumber. Or that's what would have happened if I hadn't jerked awake twenty minutes later out of a nightmare where I was sliding face-first into a wall! I don't have any context to go with that. I just remember jerking awake like in those fake dreams where you're tripping and you catch yourself by sitting up in bed. Except I was in the library and my hand had gone numb from my head being on it. The people started trickling in, and I pulled out my book and briefed a couple cases before going to class.

My classmates haven't really approached me all year. I've always been the guy who nobody really knows. The guy with the headphones in, the guy who gets to class just before it starts and leaves right when it finishes. It turns out all I needed to do was look like a dog had dragged me across town and jammed caffeine pills down my throat. Apparently I'm much more approachable that way. From now on, my pickup line will just be to not sleep at all and look really sad. Works like a charm. That's my way of saying that two girls actually came up to me and talked. Not one. TWO! And at separate occasions. The first asked if I was doing okay because I looked really tired. I said I hadn't slept, she asked if I was studying, and I had to hold back a laugh. Of course I wasn't studying. God, who would have to study? Nope, can't say that. But that's about all the filter my brain had the energy for, so I mentioned ex-girlfriend talks/troubles, and she gave me a pitying look. She asked some follow-up questions, but I was saved by class starting.

Then we had a study group session that I was thinking about skipping but didn't because we have a quiz in that class on Friday. And a girl sat down beside me (when there was an empty seat two seats away, might I add), and started a conversation. Or our practice quiz started the conversation. I'm not sure. But after I said I was up all night and went through the same routine, she mentioned she had just watched a TED talk about how sleep deprivation really messes up the neurology in your brain. I agreed wholeheartedly. Then she mentioned she saw my (recently changed) Facebook picture of me biking and asked if I did that. I said I don't really do the racing thing anymore. She asked out of the blue if I had ever toured, and I said, yes, as a matter of fact, I had done a bit of that (ACROSS THE ENTIRE COUNTRY). She said she bought a bike, and four days later she biked the Mississippi river trail from north to south. It was all a bit more than I could handle. I go from no contact to talking to a girl about actual relevant things, and it seems the only thing I have to do is tie a sign to my body that says "pathetic" and have giant rings and wrinkles under my eyes. The secret is out, gentlemen.

Oh, one other detail. I forgot my headphones in the computer lab. I must have left them still plugged into the computer when I left. That sucked, until I found them right where I left them, still plugged into the computer some fully-covered foreign girl was using. This happens to me all the time, actually. On multiple occasions I've left my Magic deck at the table after I'm done with a match. No big deal, just like $1,500 dollars in cards (minimum) sitting out there for free. On two separate occasions I've had Xavier help me look for it. Both times he was right in the middle of ribbing me out when we went up to the lost and found and they handed it back to me. He thinks I'm the luckiest guy. I was skeptical until the same thing happened with my whole backpack. (That had more money in cards than I have in money inside it.) So I got my headphones back.

I was back to myself the last two days. You guessed it: no follow-up. I was actually relieved. Headphone defense is a powerful thing. I will try not to let my guard down again. Sometimes I don't even have music playing. That's actually the best, because someone will approach you and yell a bit, and I'll give them this very confused look because I've totally forgotten I have headphones in, and they will take that to mean my music is playing so loudly I still haven't heard them and repeat it again EVEN LOUDER. Then I realize what's going on and shake my head, taking my (silent) headphones out of my ears so they know they can talk in a normal voice. That happens a lot, and every single time it is exactly the same. It's sort of like when you tell someone your name, and they repeat it back to you, and you nod to let them know that yes, they did in fact hear your incredibly simple name correctly, except then they say the last part wrong! And you've already nodded, and in the case of the guy in my class, the professor has already moved on, and that's his name forever now. Hilarious.

That's all I really have time for tonight. I have some reading to do for tomorrow. I have a couple poems started though. I also haven't posted any poems to that other blog since the first three because I wasn't happy with the edits I did. Either I didn't change stuff and I knew I wanted to, or I did change something and I'm not sure I liked it. But in going through my 6,000 emails, I found even more, so I'll try and get to putting a few up in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading!